Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Breast pain accompanying one’s period, called premenstrual mastalgia, was dismissed in the 70s as ”merely an expression of psychoneurosis” of women. They’re just frustrated and unhappy because they haven’t given their husbands children yet.

Now, we know what women always knew. Breast pain is all too common, “may be severe enough to interfere with usual daily activities, and its effect on quality of life is often underestimated.” Though “pain can be severe…,” the cause and “optimal treatment remain undefined. Approximately 60–70% of women experience some type of breast pain at some stage of their lives, and in 10–20% of cases, it is severe.” Now, some breast tenderness during one’s cycle is normal, but breast pain is not.

In many cases, surgery was prescribed. Thankfully, by 1999, we were evidently living in “an era of evidence-based surgery”—what a concept—where we have to “justify the surgery we undertake.” And so, the profession stopped cutting off the breasts of women in pain.

The hormone “prolactin is considered a central factor,” as women with cyclical breast pain were found to have elevated levels, and a prolactin-inhibitor drug was found to be an effective treatment. The side effects, though, were so bad that some women couldn’t even finish the study. There has to be a better way.

Well, while up to two-thirds of Western women suffer from breast pain in their lifetimes, it apparently may affect as few as 5% in Asian cultures. Maybe it has something to do with diet. Women eating traditional plant-based diets all their lives, like rural Bantu African women, have lower prolactin levels.

How do we know the difference isn’t just genetic? Well, when you take those women and feed them a Western diet—”meat, butter, milk, eggs, bread, and sugar”—for a few weeks, they experience a significant rise in prolactin. In fact, “hormonal changes were comparable to those found in women with menstrual irregularities” more common in the West. They got just as bad as they started eating like us.

What part of the Western diet was responsible, though? Maybe it was the bread and sugar? To see if it was the meat, researchers took some New Yorkers, and put them on a vegetarian diet for two weeks. And, that alone brought their prolactin levels down—suggesting that the removal of meat and meat products from the diet can reduce the release of prolactin.

So, let’s give it a try for breast pain. The first pilot study involved ten women with severe cyclical mastalgia, put on a low-fat diet for three months—either vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian. And, all ten women got better.

There was no control group, though, so part of their improvement may have just been the placebo effect. So, a randomized, controlled trial was undertaken. This Canadian research group had been “carrying out a clinical trial of dietary fat reduction in patients” with precancerous breast changes, and they “noted that patients with cyclical [breast problems] frequently experienced striking relief of symptoms after reduction of dietary fat.” So, they randomized women into two groups, and again, a significant improvement in symptoms was found.

Since then, we learned that vegetarian women have fewer menstrual disturbances than nonvegetarian women. Only about 5% of their cycles were anovulatory (meaning they failed to release an egg), compared to 15% of nonvegetarian menstrual cycles. Those eating more plant-based low-fat diets may also experience significantly less bloating. And, compared to placebo, women with painful menstrual cramps placed on a vegan diet experienced significant relief.

This was a so-called crossover study, where they put meat-eating women on a plant-based diet for two cycles, and then switched them back to their regular diet with some placebo supplement. So, you can show changes before and after, and then back to baseline. The problem is that several participants felt so much better on the plant-based diet, they refused to go back to their regular diet, thereby screwing up the study.

Bottom line is that a plant-based diet may offer relief from breast pain, “as well as significant reductions in menstrual pain duration, pain intensity, and duration of premenstrual symptoms related to concentration, behavioral change, and water retention.”

Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.

Breast pain accompanying one’s period, called premenstrual mastalgia, was dismissed in the 70s as ”merely an expression of psychoneurosis” of women. They’re just frustrated and unhappy because they haven’t given their husbands children yet.

Now, we know what women always knew. Breast pain is all too common, “may be severe enough to interfere with usual daily activities, and its effect on quality of life is often underestimated.” Though “pain can be severe…,” the cause and “optimal treatment remain undefined. Approximately 60–70% of women experience some type of breast pain at some stage of their lives, and in 10–20% of cases, it is severe.” Now, some breast tenderness during one’s cycle is normal, but breast pain is not.

In many cases, surgery was prescribed. Thankfully, by 1999, we were evidently living in “an era of evidence-based surgery”—what a concept—where we have to “justify the surgery we undertake.” And so, the profession stopped cutting off the breasts of women in pain.

The hormone “prolactin is considered a central factor,” as women with cyclical breast pain were found to have elevated levels, and a prolactin-inhibitor drug was found to be an effective treatment. The side effects, though, were so bad that some women couldn’t even finish the study. There has to be a better way.

Well, while up to two-thirds of Western women suffer from breast pain in their lifetimes, it apparently may affect as few as 5% in Asian cultures. Maybe it has something to do with diet. Women eating traditional plant-based diets all their lives, like rural Bantu African women, have lower prolactin levels.

How do we know the difference isn’t just genetic? Well, when you take those women and feed them a Western diet—”meat, butter, milk, eggs, bread, and sugar”—for a few weeks, they experience a significant rise in prolactin. In fact, “hormonal changes were comparable to those found in women with menstrual irregularities” more common in the West. They got just as bad as they started eating like us.

What part of the Western diet was responsible, though? Maybe it was the bread and sugar? To see if it was the meat, researchers took some New Yorkers, and put them on a vegetarian diet for two weeks. And, that alone brought their prolactin levels down—suggesting that the removal of meat and meat products from the diet can reduce the release of prolactin.

So, let’s give it a try for breast pain. The first pilot study involved ten women with severe cyclical mastalgia, put on a low-fat diet for three months—either vegetarian, or mostly vegetarian. And, all ten women got better.

There was no control group, though, so part of their improvement may have just been the placebo effect. So, a randomized, controlled trial was undertaken. This Canadian research group had been “carrying out a clinical trial of dietary fat reduction in patients” with precancerous breast changes, and they “noted that patients with cyclical [breast problems] frequently experienced striking relief of symptoms after reduction of dietary fat.” So, they randomized women into two groups, and again, a significant improvement in symptoms was found.

Since then, we learned that vegetarian women have fewer menstrual disturbances than nonvegetarian women. Only about 5% of their cycles were anovulatory (meaning they failed to release an egg), compared to 15% of nonvegetarian menstrual cycles. Those eating more plant-based low-fat diets may also experience significantly less bloating. And, compared to placebo, women with painful menstrual cramps placed on a vegan diet experienced significant relief.

This was a so-called crossover study, where they put meat-eating women on a plant-based diet for two cycles, and then switched them back to their regular diet with some placebo supplement. So, you can show changes before and after, and then back to baseline. The problem is that several participants felt so much better on the plant-based diet, they refused to go back to their regular diet, thereby screwing up the study.

Bottom line is that a plant-based diet may offer relief from breast pain, “as well as significant reductions in menstrual pain duration, pain intensity, and duration of premenstrual symptoms related to concentration, behavioral change, and water retention.”

The extraordinarily low rates of chronic disease among people eating traditional plant-based Bantu diets was one of the inspirations for Nathan Pritikin’s work. See the series of videos that begins with Engineering a Cure.

42 responses to “Plant-Based Diets for Breast Pain”

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Thanks for sharing this video. This is a problem for me – glad to know I’m doing the right thing to help. I would love to know if anyone has any info on the safety of natural progesterone cream. Even though I do all the things suggested for PMS on this site: mostly dairy free (and meat), drink green tea daily, eat lots of flax, b12, b6, magnesium, even smell saffron everyday at least once :), if I don’t use progesterone cream too, I’m a mess! Anything I’ve missed?

Since taking on a mostly raw vegetarian diet I find that my period surprises me with its arrival. Before, on a “junk-food vegetarian” diet – hey, potato chips are vegetarian, right? – I find I no longer have menstral cramps. None. Zip. And the cure was so elegant, so simple: Eat Plants.

Sadly, my menstrual cycle problems, which feel pretty awful to me and which interfere in my life, have had no change since switching to a plant based diet 3 years ago. (sad, long sigh) I wonder if it has to do with me eating animals for the first 40 years of my life. My body may just be permanently messed up. (Acne never cleared up either.) I know from recent blood tests that I have certain hormone problems that diet has not cleared up.

That doesn’t mean that I will stop eating healthy. This is my take-away: It means that we have to be careful (and I’m not saying the video wasn’t careful) when we tell people about plant based diets. Not everyone experiences the noticeable health benefits that the majority of people experience. Despite how it seems sometimes, a healthy diet is not magic for everyone. We just have to be careful when explaining healthy diets to people.

Just sharing the thoughts I had after hearing this video. I am happy for the people who get significant benefits like pain reduction.

Thea,
Great comment. A whole food plant based diet is not a cure for all ailments. Many of us have been eating the wrong foods for 30 or 40 years, so damage has been done. A lot of different diseases will not be cured, because you change your diet to a whole food plant based diet – simply because the disease has nothing to do with food, the damage is permanent or because biology is complex. On the other hand the body has a great capacity to heal, so no doubt that “wrong-food-induced-diseases” (cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension, inflammatory conditions etc) can improve, be reversed or even cured with a plant based diet. That said, a whole food plant based diet reduce the risk of acquiring diseases – heartattack, stroke, cancer, DM, hypertension etc, so it is not only a cure, but also an insurance.

Another thing is that “real medicine” – pills – do not work on everybody – you are probably familiar with the term “number needed to treat” (NNT). NNT show how many patients you have to treat, to avoid an event (disease, death) in one patient. For some drugs it can be 100 – you have to treat 100 patients for one to benefit. Changing your diet has (probably) no sideeffects, so no harm done if it doesnt work.
benefit! Changing your diet has (probably) no sideeffects.

Lots of ways to eat a plant-based diet: high or low fat, high or low protein, raw or cooked, fruit-based, grain-based, no grains, high or low vegetables, and so on. Perhaps you have not yet found the proportions and application that you need to heal your condition. For example, I know people who need to avoid cooked grains to establish health. Perhaps if not tried yet a high raw Jenkins style ‘simian’ style diet would help you: fruits, vegetables, only those beans and grains edible raw (e.g. peas and corn), nuts, and seeds. Dr. Greger says a bit about Jenkins here:http://nutritionfacts.org/questions/dr-jenkins-and-plant-based-diets/

Don Matesz: You could be right that I just haven’t found the right diet. Also, I am always the first to say that I have PLENTY I could do to improve the health level of my diet.

That said, I’m already eating so much healthier than the vast majority of people in America, and I’m already eating the type of diet that the vast majority of people report great benefits from when they bother to switch. My diet is filled with home-cooked, whole plant food based foods, supplemented with B12 and D. (Not that I don’t ever eat white flour, sugar, or oil…) Also, I don’t believe we have enough science to say that a more specialized say raw diet would make any difference. Going to a raw diet would be very hard for me to do. For me to make the effort, I would have to believe that it would really help. I just don’t see it.

But I do appreciate you taking the time to offer suggestions. This is the kind of thing that I let sit in the back of my brain for a while. I very well may reconsider at some point and follow your advice at some point in the future.

Maj0: the fasting idea is very interesting. I read the book The Pleasure Trap which talks about the benefits of fasting. I’ve done religious 24 hour fasts, but nothing more than that. It’s definitely something to think about.

I no longer store or cook food in plastic. I don’t use pesticides or herbicides (other than vinegar) in my yard either, but of course, that doesn’t mean that I’m not exposed thanks to my neighbors or at parks.

Dr. Fuhrman wrote a book about fasting in the 90s. I’ve read a ton of books on the subject and I have found that his book is the most credible. If you have given any more thought about trying an extended fast definitely check out ”
Fasting and Eating for Health: A Medical Doctor’s Program for Conquering Disease”

Thanks Cory, that’s really helpful. I have some issues with Dr. Fuhrman, but I’m a big believer in not throwing out the baby with the bathwater. If this is a good book, then it is a good book not matter who wrote it. :-) Thanks again.

Perhaps the severity of your issues might be even worse if you didn’t follow the plant based diet? Who knows what kind of additional medications, surgeries, etc, you may have required by now if your diet were not as healing and health-promoting as it is now? I don’t know if that’s an uplifting or depressing thought, I certainly hope the former! All the best, and I hope someday you do find some relief.

Me too.. I’m 21, vegan for 3 years.. acne not cleared up. Still have breast tenderness and severe cramps. But I don’t eat a low-fat or super healthy vegan diet.. even though I try. So that might have something to do with it.

I am not doing very well having switched. I am convinced of the change being right, but I am not feeling well. I have no clue why. My head is in a fog all the time. I love the diet and do not have a problem eating it at all. But, my emotional self is cracking. My daughter’s skin is still awful. Won’t clear up. Now, I am beginning to experience cramps in overy area and stabbing type pains in my breasts. Never before had either. Emotionally feel like I’m cracking. Headaches. I don’t understand. Added the Soy and Flax. Could they be effecting my breast pain and emotional distress? Added corn too. Rarely ate those things before.

Hello Sandy,
I experienced a period of low energy after switching to a plant based diet too. I would suggest to be sure that you eat enough calories during the day. This diet is less nutrient dense and, depending on how you ate before the change, you may feel fuller while eating less calories overall. Add nuts, eat healthy snacks during the day, drink plenty of water and do exercise everyday outside. Don’t forget that you should base the diet on starchy foods (oats, cereals, potatoes, whole grain pasta, breads…). Be sure to take your vit B12 and avoid added sugars and oils. These things will help a lot. I no longer have low energy and feel much better instead. My unbearable period pain has halved and is much more tolerable. I wish you will be doing better.

Darryl: I haven’t followed your links, but I am aware of the relatively new study on dogs’ digestive systems in regards to starches. I find the study fascinating. It fits in so nicely with the theory that dogs evolved from hanging around human settlements and eating human trash/food discards.

I don’t know if this is related to the study results or not, but I can say that my vegan dog is in great health. He seems to digest his food pretty well.

I switched to a plant-based diet on April 1 of this year. So I’ve been eating this way less than a month. I have had 3 children, and since my last child was born in 2010 I have gained back 20 pounds after not losing all of my baby weight, putting me 40 pounds over my pre-baby weight from before my 1st child. I’ve also noticed my cycles became shorter between periods (it used to be 28 days on the dot, and since he was born it was closer to ever 24-26 days) but my periods have been heavier and I’ve had greater mood swings throughout my cycle. I attributed some of this to nursing, but as nursing starts to taper off, my body should have re regulated itself.

Not only have I lost 8 pounds since starting a plant-based diet, I also had an unexpected change relating to my menstrual cycle. When I started this diet, I had just finished bleeding and was about a week away from my normal ovulation time. I started my most recent period this week and marked it down on my calendar- it’s been a full 28 days since my last one! This hasn’t happened in years. Also, the bleeding is not as heavy and I did not experience any cramping or mood swings like I have in the past. I am just so amazed at how quickly my body has seen benefits to this diet beyond just the weight loss.

I’ve been vegetarian for years but it wasn’t until going mostly vegan and improving and increasing my vegetable intake AND cutting out refined sugar that I experienced amazing relief of menstrual cycle symptoms. I used to be very emotional during the premenstrual phase and sometimes have cramps and other uncomfortable things. Now I either have no symptoms or symptoms are so minor I can ignore them. My body no longer warns me of an upcoming menstrual cycle and I have to keep an eye on the calender.

This video surprised me somewhat. I am vegetarian since 20 years (I’m 38 now), with some fish and egg occasionally. I became vegetarian gradually. We never had much meet and I grew up without junk food, on a whole food, plant based diet with loads of raw veggies – only seasonal veggies and more veggies than fruits (I am European). Nevertheless, I always had premenstrual breast pain – quite a strong one. In fact, it helped me to track and predict my cycle with a 100% accuracy.
Nevertheless, interesting content! Thanks.

I have been vegan for years and eating healthy whole foods for a bit over a year. Last year I started experiencing menstrual irregularities and a few other symptoms. As it turns out, I have mildly elevated prolactin. My doctor says it’s not high enough to warrant taking medicine, but she put me on the pill. I still suffer from other symptoms of high prolactin. I wish there was something I could do!

I have been having breast pain for some time and happened on this video. So, trusting Dr. Greger with my health, I switched to a vegan diet. THE RESULTS WERE INSTANT AND PROFOUND!!!! I had none of the discomfort and pain… So, to experiment, I ate animal foods. THE PAIN RETURNED!! I am now making my meals vegan and do not want to look back!!!!!

Kate: My go-to reference for the topic of eating a raw vegan diet is “Becoming Raw” by Brenda Davis RD and Vesanto Melina MS RD. These two authors are well respected and even have a guest blog post on NutritionFacts (so their information is consistent with the quality of information provided here on NutritionFacts). I recommend getting that book if you are at all interested in going even High Raw. It seems to me that the diet must be done carefully if it is going to be done in a way that supports health.
.
One of the problems with a raw diet can be getting enough calories. Here are some quotes from page 40 of the book. You would have to get the book to look up the references yourself:
“The calorie intakes of raw-food adherents are consistently below those of the general population, and below levels commonly recommended for adults. … 31, 33, 35, 55, 70, 76, 80, 81, 83 … These intakes are significantly lower than those typically considered necessary for healthy adults, although they are suitable for weight-loss diets. … In one study, about 30 percent of the women younger than 45 years of age had partial to complete amenorrhea (cessation of menstruation) due to low body weight. 69”
.
A carefully planned diet can avoid the problems commonly seen with raw diets, but I would caution people to get advice from science-based book like Becoming Raw rather than following popular advice.
.
Hope this helps. What do you think?

I have been on a diet free of meat (exception: fish), dairy, refined sugar, grain and alcohol for 29 days now and went from severe breast pain and bloating to zero breast pain and minimal bloating / inflammation. Normally I “rely” on the symptom of breast pain to know that I will be getting my period soon, but it completely surprised me this month. I didn’t do any research on mastalgia or prolactin prior, so I don’t believe there was any placebo effect for me. I started this diet to change my eating habits and only eat what my body needs, not what my taste buds want and this is a wonderful “side effect”. My plan is to stick with this kind of diet and only make exceptions every once in a while. I feel great!

I changed to a vegan diet in 2013..so just before this video was uploaded and ever since, I have still been struggeling with hormonal imbalances (pms, extrem mestrual cramps with vomiting etc.) So i have tried tweeking my diet (as I do not want to take hormonal pills). I tried very low fat for 1,5y (like starch solution) which did not work at all and left m constantly hungry and my energy was very unstable. I have tried adding fats (still not anywhere close to high fat, as that seems to make me nauseous), which at least helped clear up my skin, but the other symptoms are still there.

What is your advice/recommendation for a plant based diet, that especially helps to regulate hormone function? (also e.g. for me drinking soy milk gives me severe acne and breast pain).

There is a lot of different information out there and I was hoping, as I am a great fan of your work and it helped reverse my mother’s arthritis pain, that you might have some helpful knowledge on this topic.

Also, is there a doctor you could recommend, who works with a dietary approach, who I could do a consultation with? I also struggle with a histamine sensitivity and low energy.

Hi, Alexandra. You did not mention your age, which could be a factor in the hormonal issues you are experiencing. If you are overweight, weight loss can help to stabilize hormone levels, because body fat makes hormones. Meanwhile, a tea of red raspberry leaf can help with menstrual symptoms. To find a doctor who takes a plant-based dietary approach, check out https://www.plantbaseddoctors.org/ and The American College of Lifestyle Medicine, of which Dr. Greger is a Fellow. I hope that helps!

I am 25y old, 5’11 tall and weigh 125 lbs. So not overweight at all. I do yoga every day (but nothing excessive), drink 2,5 L of water and even drink rasberry leaf tea against cramps along with using a warming water bottle and stretching.